Does anyone on the Seafood NIC listserve know about the packaging or
production method of these products?
>Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 19:40:40 -0400 (EDT)
>From: ProMED-mail <promed@promed.isid.harvard.edu>
>Subject: PRO/EDR> Botulism, dried fish suspected - Russia (Volgograd)
>
>BOTULISM, DRIED FISH SUSPECTED - RUSSIA (VOLGOGRAD)
>***********************************************
>A ProMED-mail post
><http://www.promedmail.org>
>ProMED-mail, a program of the
>International Society for Infectious Diseases
><http://www.isid.org>
>
>Date: Tue 26 May 2004
>From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
>Source: Regions.ru, 26 May 2004 [translated by Mod.NR; edited]
><http://www.regions.ru/newsheadlines/index.html?section=news&topic=health>
>
>
>4 cases of botulism reported in Volgograd
>- -----------------------------------------------
>4 cases of botulism were reported in Volgograd, Russia, one with a fatal
>outcome. The affected persons were admitted to the Krasnooktyabrskiy and
>Sovetskiy hospitals on 19 May 2004. According to the Sanitary
>Epidemiological Surveillance Center's Hygiene Department chief, Igor
>Krasnov, all 4 of the patients ate dried fish bought from the "Petrovskiy"
>shop. On Tue 25 May 2004, a 73-year-old woman died from the poisoning.
>Another young 20-year-old woman is currently in serious condition in the
>intensive care unit. The condition of 2 other patients -- a 53-year-old
>man, and a 73-year-old man -- is estimated, by physicians, to be
>satisfactory. So far, the precise cause of poisoning has not been
>identified. Nevertheless, health officials are warning people to avoid
>buying fish from the "Petrovskiy" shop.
>
>- --
>ProMED-mail
><promed@promedmail.org>
>
>[The method of diagnosis of botulism is not stated here. Individual cases
>of the paralysis can be confused with other diseases, but a cluster of such
>cases is certainly likely to be botulism. Type E botulism is the type
>frequently associated with fish products. Botulinum toxin is considered to
>be one of the category-A biowarfare agents by the US CDC.
>
>Classically, botulism is a food-borne disease caused by the ingestion of
>preformed toxin, although there also exists wound botulism (in which _C.
>botulinum_ spores germinate in a wound), and infant botulism (in which the
>spores germinate in the intestinal tract). In the USA, infant botulism is
>the most common form of the disease. Inhalation botulism, or, food/water
>deliberate contamination, may be biowarfare events. An accidental exposure
>of lab workers to aerosolized toxin occurred in the early 1960s in Germany
>(1). probably due, in part, to a sub-lethal dose. Lethal disease has been
>caused in primates exposed to a botulinum toxin aerosol (2).
>
>1. Holzer, VE. Botulismus durch inhalation. Med Klin 1962;41:1735-1738.
>
>2. Franz DR, Pitt LM, Clayton MA, et al. Efficacy of prophylactic and
>therapeutic administration of antitoxin for inhalation botulism, in
>Botulism and Tetanus Neurotoxoins: Neurotransmission and Biomedicine
>Aspects. Das Gupta BR (ed), 1993, Plenum Text, New York, pp 473-476. - Mod.LL]
>
>
>
-- Liz Brown Marine Advisory Program University of Alaska Fairbanks PO Box 1549 Dillingham, AK 99576 907-842-1265 Fax 907-842-3202
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